Picture a bright blue ball, Just spinnin', spinnin, free. Dizzy with the possibilities. Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

 

An installment in The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics.
By David Dodd Library, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

This exchange appeared in Hunter's mailbag on 8/6/96 from a Charlie Bass. 

He inquired to Hunter, "Robert, if you would, please tell me what you were thinking when you penned the phrase "box of rain." What, for you, does a box of rain represent. I am not asking for the meaning of the song, or for you to explain the song to me -- I spent plenty of time on my own doing that. I am just terribly curious how you came to choose that image."

The response was, "Charlie, well, I don't like to do this, since it encourages others to ask about what I had in mind when I wrote a song, and mostly you'd need to have my mind to understand even approximately what I had in it. By "box of rain," I meant the world we live on, but "ball" of rain didn't have the right ring to my ear, so box it became, and I don't know who put it there."   [rh]

Sticker credit:

Patreon.com/sarahbrueckwilliams (glitter cloud and drops) 

ArtByViivianRodarte (holographic world globe)